August 24, 2006

Pluto Demoted; Charon, Xena, Ceres Also Relegated To Minor Status

Astronomers have finally corrected the error of seventy five years ago, and recognized that bodies such as Pluto are not planets. (This also dashes the hopes of wannabes like Ceres, Charon (Pluto’s largest moon), and Xena (the large icy body in the outer system).

Some conservatives are in arms, but I view this is a reaffirmation of the status quo of 1929, before Clyde Tombaugh’s diligent work in scanning the skies paid off. Think of it like this, conservatives; how often do we get to roll back 75-odd years of misdirected “progress”?

Yeah, yeah. I just thought he was leaving, and thought it was a good idea to tell him that he doesn’t have to stay for my sake (or anyone elses), altough I appreciate the gesture. Thanks, but no thanks.

For Ceres, Xena, and a few others, this is a promotion. They go from also ran no bodies to being planets, albiet minor ones. (Ceres and an number of others were recognized as planets in the 1800s before it started to get out of hand).

Charon suffers two way. I was going to be promoted to a full fledged planet in a double planet system, and is now just a satellite, and its primary, Pluto is demoted, so it is demoted by association.

This means that kids will now have to learn just eight planets, instead of nine, while supernerds who know learn the names of all the moons will soon also have a couple dozen dwarf planets to learn the names of on top of the core eight.